A small ship by today's standards, the NORTHEASTERN was a good sized vessel for her day being 242 feet in length, 42.2 beam and 23.2 in
depth and the vessel was of American registry with a home port of Fairport.
She was one of four identical vessels constructed in 1901 for the Northwestern S.S. Company.
The NORTHEASTERN and her sister vessels (NORTHTOWN, NORTHMAN, and NORTHWESTERN) were all built the same year, 1901, by the Chicago Shipbuilding Company, in Chicago, Ill.
They had all been originally built as general cargo carriers but converted to oil tankers with a carrying capacity of 3,500 tons or 23,098 barrels of
oil. This ship did not carry the oil in bulk tanks, but actual barrels as
this was the method of transport until bulk tankers were developed. After the demise
of the Northeastern the three remaining sister vessels were all purchased by the
Texas Company (Texaco) in June of 1905 for $450,000. These ships were some
of the first ships purchased by Texas Oil Company to transport their
products and start their growth into one of the largest oil companies in
the world.

The NORTHMAN was
renamed by Texaco to the Louisianan, then renamed "Port
Texaco No.5", then in 1940 again sold and named the Ceylon,
then later in 1948 named Cowasjee and finally scrapped in
1956. NORTHTOWN became the Alabama after Texaco bought her,
the in 1918 became Amabala, then back to Alabama in 1919 and
finally went to scrap in 1950. The NORTHWESTERN was renamed the Federal
in 1921 and on April 30, 1942, she was sunk by the German U-507. The
Northwestern/Federal was 5 miles North of Gibara, Cuba, when the U-boat
shelled her, setting the ship on fire and eventually sinking it.Of the four sister ships, two remain and both
at the bottom of the Ocean.

Constructed of steel, with her machinery aft, the NORTHEASTERN had one deck plus a "spar deck" and was equipped with electric lights.
Her power came from a three cylinder (triple expansion) steam engine with cylinders of 20",
33", and 54" in diameter and a stroke of 40", which produced 1,150 HP to turn her single screw.

The NORTHEASTERN was enroute to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from Port Arthur, Texas, with a cargo of oil when she wrecked upon the Diamond Shoals on December
27, 1904, just three years after being built.
A gale had blown the ship off course and the visibility very poor due to a thick
fog. At 11PM she grounded on the outer Diamond Shoals where tremendous waves beat the ship relentlessly.
The situation was perilous for the 22 crewmembers on board the ship and they
fired signal rockets until early in the morning hours when their pleas were
answered by signal rockets from the shore.

Unfortunately,
it was far to rough for rescuers to row out to the stranded ship and several
attempts to do so failed. Not until the next day did the winds moderate
enough to allow rescuers from the Cape Hatteras and Creeds Hill lifesaving
stations to row out to the ship. They found her awash except for a section
of the stern, where all of the survivors had gathered. The two surfboats
made the trip through breakers to rescue the crew, the Hatteras boat taking on
10 men, the Creeds Hill boat taking the remaining 12. Later, the rescued
crew praised the bravery
of the surf men in a letter to the Life Saving Service.

Diving the Northeastern

The wreck lays on the Diamond Shoals (40' deep) in an upright position with the ships outline clearly defined. The bow is virtually intact with spaces in the forepeak providing penetration to decks below the chain locker.
Access to the interior of the bow has become much easier in the recent past as
opening have rusted through the hull plating. Once inside the bow spaces
divers will encounter large masses of hard corals all over the interior.
The anchor chain locker and much of the interior is still intact. At the
very forepeak there are several racks between the web frames where dozens of
block and tackles are stored, all concreted together. A very cool sight,
but not a good artifact as they are steel and will simply rot away if removed to
the surface.

The amidships tank sections have collapsed into an interesting collection of plates and piping, leading to the structure which once supported the wooden pilothouse placed amidships (which is now buried in the sand along the port side of the wreck).
The strain of years of winter storms and hurricanes has broken the hull into two
parts, causing a fracture amidships completely across the hull. Swimming aft, a diver will then encounter the boilers, still flanked by the ship's sidewalls and companionways - the starboard one you can still swim through.
The triple expansion engine is behind the boilers in the very aft of the vessel.
A confusion of plating and beams with many spaces between and below them is contained within the intact stern section.
This is the remains of the stern deck house, which contained crews' quarters and the galley as evidenced by the artifacts located there, broken pottery and a large "claw foot" iron bathtub.

This vessel has been positively identified by diver Steve Lange of Hatteras through the recovery of the brass lettering from her fantail spelling out the name NORTHEASTERN, and of course the general layout and size of the machinery and vessel. The iron "battle covers" of the portholes which have been recovered from this wreck are also cast with "Chicago Shipbuilding Company, Chicago".
The
winter storms move the sand around a good bit on this wreck and sections of plating and machinery
are always being hidden or uncovered. On some dives the entire
fantail and propeller are visible, then later the sand will completely cover the
stern and spill into the interior of the wreck. Dives during the 2012
season have found the site is being coved by sand at the stern and much of the
amidships section is also covered up. It is the changeable
nature of the shifting sands of the Diamond Shoals that both first trapped this
ship and now sometimes cover and preserve her for future diving.

Due to her relatively small size
and the intact nature of her hull, the NORTHEASTERN is easy to navigate.
The shallow depth of just 40 feet allows divers to tour the entire shipwreck in
one long dive. It is a great dive in most conditions but like all the
wrecks on the Diamond Shoals and the HESPERIDES, which is nearby, can be plagued with surge when the sea kicks up.

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